The new Breck digs under a Colorado sky (Eric Gorski, The Denver Post)

In one of the more anticipated local craft beer happenings of the year, Breckenridge Brewery this weekend will celebrate the grand opening of its impressive, sprawling and quite shiny new $36 million farmhouse-style brewery property in Littleton.

Founded in 1990, Breckenridge is one of the state’s legacy breweries and a sneak preview earlier this week was testament to that, attracting Colorado craft beer royalty including Adam Avery of Avery Brewing, Doug Odell of Odell Brewing and Brian Dunn of Great Divide.

To commemorate the release of the French crime thriller “The Connection,” Alamo Drafthouse and Fort Collins-based Odell Brewing announced Friday they are creating a special beer for the occasion: The French {Hop} Connection.

“We were looking for something that represented France. We were looking for something that represented the French Connection,'” Odell head brewer Bill Beymer said in a video released by Alamo.

Odell used French hop varietals Aramis and Triskel to create the limited batch saison. Two hundred kegs of the beer was created and clocks in at 7.3 percent ABV.

The beer will be available at select Alamo locations around the country — including Colorado, Missouri and Texas. There are also plans for a beer dinner at select locations. Dates, locations and menus will be announced at a later date.

“The Connection” opens at the Alamo Drafthouse Littleton location on June 5.

Odell’s big double IPA is at the center of another trademark brouhaha (photo from Odell).

A small start-up brewery and distillery in Chicago decided to change its name after getting into a trademark dispute with Fort Collins-based Odell Brewing, the third largest craft brewery in Colorado and one of the nation’s Top 50 independent breweries.

This latest in a long line of trademark battles in the brewing industry involves Myrcenary double IPA and a two-man operation that opened as Mercenary Brewery and Distillery last year. In a news release Thursday, the Chicago business said it was changing its name to Maplewood Brewing and Distillery after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Odell.

At first glance, it appeared to be a bit too much and a beat too late: the “Fuss Off,” a Colorado Craft Beer Week festival so exclusive, so hush-hush, that you would have to buy a $50 ticket without knowing either the venue or the breweries pouring. Attire was “fussy or hipster formal.”

Then you get the e-mail on the day of the festival revealing the venue as a classy upstairs hall at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in downtown Denver. Then you take the elevator upstairs and find 16 Colorado breweries pouring some exceptionally special beers — with no lines. Then you sit down in a cushy chair to enjoy said beer and the six-piece band playing chamber music features members of DeVotchKa and The Flobots.

Last month’s news that Elysian Brewing in Seattle was selling out to Anheuser-Busch InBev sent ripples through American craft brewing like no other acquisition before it.

Here was a brewery that stands as a bedrock of the movement, whose guiding light on the brewing side literally wrote the book on how to start an independent craft brewery, that had just released a collaboration beer with an indie rock label with the tag line “corporate beer still sucks,” giving in to the supposed forces of darkness.

“I would say it was quite a surprise from a brewery that has been in business the past two decades,” said Wallace, CEO of Left Hand Brewing in Longmont. “We look at them as contemporaries. I am shocked (AB) was able to get somebody like that.”

OB’s flagship Dale’s Pale Ale, now brewed in two states (Denver Post file).

Amid a controversial period of independent American craft brewers selling out to big beer, Colorado-based Oskar Blues Brewery has something else in mind: the possibility of buying smaller U.S. breweries, a brewery representative confirmed.

Spokesman Chad Melis was understandably vague about the details of potential acquisitions by Colorado’s second largest independent craft brewing company, which in 2013 opened a second production facility in North Carolina.

But in response to questions about whether Oskar Blues would consider selling out, Melis floated an altogether different scenario.

Dave Thibodeau of Ska Brewing gives us his picks for Beer in Review 2014. (Courtesy of Ska Brewing)

As 2014 comes to a close, we’re once again asking people in the Colorado craft beer community to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next. This next installment in our 4th annual Beer In Review features Dave Thibodeau of Ska Brewing in Durango, one of the state’s powerhouse breweries. This year Ska’s True Blonde Ale won a gold at the Great American Beer Fest and introduced the sessionable IPA Rudie in cans at the Colorado Brewers Guild’s inaugural Sesh Fest in August.
Here are Dave’s selections:Read more…

As 2014 comes to a close, we’re once again asking folks in the Colorado craft beer community to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next. This next installment in our 4th annual Beer In Review features Todd Usry, brewmaster and general manager for Breckenridge Brewery, the state’s fifth largest independent craft brewery. The next year will be a huge one for Breckenridge as it moves brewing operations from Denver to a 12-acre farm-style brewing complex and tourist destination now under construction in Littleton. Todd’s responses:

Favorite beer of the year: I had so many exceptional beers in 2014 that it’s impossible to pick a favorite. I did have what might have been my favorite beer and food pairing ever just last week at our brewery Christmas party where we do a bottle share of non-Breckenridge beers. I grabbed a bottle of Dogfish Head Birra Etrusca Bronze and took it to the table to pair with a garlic and herb crusted NY strip … absolute beer and food nirvana.

There was no Guinness certification process involved. But until evidence is mounted to the contrary, it appears Odell Brewing and Fort Collins beer bar Tap and Handle can claim the Colorado record for most beers on tap at one time by a single brewery.

On Monday night, the taps at the College Avenue watering hole featured a staggering 58 different beers from hometown favorite Odell, which is celebrating 25 years in business.

According to Tap and Handle owner Jeff Willis, that eclipsed a previous state record set at his establishment in 2013, when Sierra Nevada took over 56 of the bar’s 74 taps.Read more…

Our new iPad app serves as a guide to metro Denver’s bountiful breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, the holy trinity of craft beer enjoyment for followers and fans. Download the app for iPad .
Next time you head for a beer in Boulder, don’t forget your friend, Beers of Boulder and Boulder County, an iPad app from the Daily Camera. Download the app for iPad .

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In Colorado, our pint glasses overflow with excellent beer. New breweries, new batches, festivals every other week. How lucky are we? First Drafts is The Denver Post's beer blog aimed at helping you keep tabs on the state's ever-expanding craft beer culture. We offer a mash of news, event coverage, homegrown stories, tasting notes and tips to help you imbibe. Expert drinker or homebrewer? Let us know what you're loving about Colorado's beer scene. Not sure exactly what a firkin is? No worries, let us be your guide. Go ahead. Belly up and drink it in!